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unused drives shown in 'MY COMPUTER'

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unused drives shown in 'MY COMPUTER'

Old 22nd Aug 2010, 11:57
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unused drives shown in 'MY COMPUTER'

How do I get rid of unused drives shown on 'My Computer' ? Over the past year I've had a number of flash drives plugged in at the same time shown as Drive D, Drive E, Drive F etc. None are there now but the icons still are on screen and right clicking doesn't bring up a 'delete' option.....

OSFO
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 12:24
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Maybe try clicking in the page and then press CTRL+F5. Not sure if it will work, but it cant hurt. Should do a total refresh
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 12:38
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Thanks.
Tried it.
Didn't !
OFSO
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 14:21
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Left click to highlight and then press Delete?

Probably tried it.....
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 14:42
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I have an icon in the taskbar titled " Safely remove hardware" which is related to removeable drives. Might be worth a try.

Alternatively, in the Start, Control Panel, System, System Properties, Device Manager there is a list of installed hardware. Should be able to disable them there.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 14:51
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Thanks AAG, problem is I still use the USB drives now and then so don't want to remove the drivers, do want to remove the icons however, all four of them. Or maybe leave just one..... WIN thinks otherwise.

I've said it once and I'll say it again: next time Linux !
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 15:29
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Is this Win 7?
If so, similar question was asked by a Micro Mart reader this week, but the request was 'how do I show empty drives'.

Answer was,

Open Explorer, click 'Organize', 'Folder and search options', on the tab view, tick or untick 'Hide empty drives in Computer folder'


Hope this helps, I cant confirm if it works as I don't use Windoze any more.

Gibbo.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 15:43
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next time Linux !
Oh, has Linux been fixed then, so as not to need you to

- log in as root
- type a mount command being a couple of hundred characters of gobbledegook

before you can see a removable file system? I can tell you that discovering that you had to do this every time you swapped floppy disks in a Linux system did put me off ever so slightly.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 16:03
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Thats way gone now Wombat.

The OS looks after all that. On my distro Fedora you plug in it makes a noise when its mounted and away you go.

Its worked with cameras, phones,USB sticks, GPS units haven't had a problem yet with anything which has flash memory and a USB connector.

It also spots and talks to all other devices I have connected it to be it GSM modem sticks, USB speakers and even a TCAS unit from the aircraft (which i was gobsmacked at when it worked), Bluethooth dongles etc

When you want to disconnect you click on the usb symbol on you desktop like you would in windows choose the device you want to disconnect and it makes another noise and it removes it. Blue tooth devices are similar.

You can go into the inards if you like though still and turn the auto mount off. But you have to confirm you are wearing cords and saddles before it will let you do that.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 16:43
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Ah, right.

Actually someone did give me a Linux box a few months ago, but nobody could make it work. I switched it on, found some widget in the GUI (after a bit of searching, but fair enough given that I was new to it) to set the screen resolution to match my monitor.

Next day when I switched the box back on it had forgotten the screen resolution. A few days of assistance by IT bods, including the traditional logging in as root and hand editing several configuration files full of gobbledegook, didn't make any difference.

So I asked for another Windows box instead, so that I could actually do some work, and the Linux box remains disconnected and switched off under my desk. The Windows box just worked.

So, not every example of someone pasting something over the cracks of Linux to give you a better user experience than editing vast reams of gobbledegook actually works. Nice to hear that "automount" works better than the example I came across.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 17:03
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well that was your first mistake turning off a linux/unix box.

Always leave them turned on if on a desk.

Tis a problem with windows admins playing at being sys admins. I don't suppose you want to turn it on again but if you do. Let us know what flavour of linux it is and I suspect we should be able to get you fixed in a couple of hours.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 17:37
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This forum is indeed in some ways a microcosm of R&N in that an innocuous question there on some aviation topic rapidly turns into a Boeing/Airbus flamer.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 18:05
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"Oh, has Linux been fixed then, so as not to need you to
- log in as root
- type a mount command being a couple of hundred characters of gobbledegook before you can see a removable file system?"

My stars! Haven't needed to do that for many years.

And even if one did, at least it it doable - which is more than I can say for fixing my mate's Windows box with a totally corrupted Registry!

Most modern Linuxes "just work" these days - I did my share of editing .conf files in the old days but have never had to edit any configuration files in Mepis or Mint.

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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 18:28
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OFSO,

If my memory serves me right you can edit the devices in Control Panel -> System & Maintenance -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. There you will find a Logical Disk Manager that lets you work with the mapped drives.

I recall its in XP, it's certainly in Vista and Win 7. I used it the other day as I have an external disc drive with my MP3s on it, and Win 7 decided to change the mapping which messed up media player. I went there & was able to change the drive mappings, get rid of a mapping from an old USB stick etc

MTK - agree with you on the desktop Linux front. Just migrated my PC from Linux Mint 8 Gnome to Linux Mint 9 KDE edition. Devices just plug in & work now, same for networking & sharing with Windows machines.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 18:35
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BOAC I hope you havn't taken my comment on Windows admins and sys admins as a which is the best OS flamer.

In my day I was both.

Windows support staff will without fail either take control of your machine using software and do the changes with you watching or pay you a visit. They can't help themselves and the OS doesn't lend itself to being fixed any otherway.

Any unix sys admin would never leave there seat in thier office, they would just telnet into the machine and edit any of the required files. There are many different ways you can change the resolution.

1. Config file in your X11 xorg.conf if you using X11 drivers
2. Change the users .login file to use the xrandr (don't muck around with this one if you don't know what your doing it can shag your monitor)
3. Or if the user wants to try a few different ones press crt-alt and either plus or minus to flick between supported modes.
4. Use a GUI as has been mentioned

There are a load of otherways as well depending on the flavour of linux/unix.

The problem is when the windows first/second line support think they can also fix unix issues. 9 times out of 10 they turn a 2 min telnet job into a "sod it, it would be quicker reblowing the OS onto this thing than going through the log files to find out what they have edited.

So my post was more a dig at IT support staff fiddling with stuff they haven't a clue about. I always made it very clear where ever I worked that I had zero clue about Apple Macs. I would have never dreamed about having a play with a system and get the hopes up of the user that it was going to be sorted. My limit was printer problems if the toner was full and paper in it and it printed from laptop, if it still din't work after a reboot they were on there own.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 19:24
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Didn't gibbo have it sussed?
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 19:27
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No - not personal - it was 'triggered' by this thread but really a general 'Sunday evening' post about the 'Buy a Mac/use Linux/Windows is great' routine that we see so often when someone asks for advice.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 19:41
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O aye to the op use CCleaner to clean your registry out.

It sounds like your user profile is a wee bit dodgy.

this can happen if you don't log out properly and just kill the machine holding your finger on the power button. Or the machine dies on you a few times.

The best way to test this is by making a new account and seeing if you see the drives when you start using that one. If it does work the simple way is to change to using that account and always make sure you shut the machine down properly allowing it to soft power down.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 20:15
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Hi OFSO.

Go to "Folder and search options->View". On Vista and Win 7, it's under the organise menu in any Explorer view. On XP (from memory) it's in the Explorer options menu.

Select "Hide Empty Drives in the Computer Folder"

This sets the drive to hidden so, if you are also viewing hidden files, the drives will still appear but will be greyed out.

Despite the stupid flame wars, this is by design for rapid remounting of drives and compatability with old pre-XP apps which could not handle drives disappearing. The hidden files option read "files, folders or drives".

Hope this helps

Cheers

Mad jock. The problem is not with Windows. It's with the ill qualified people working as "admins". I cannot think of anything that needs a visit to a Win box except "not bootable", which of course applies equally to *nix boxes. No need for telnet either, thankfully, but of course you can use it if you want to.

PS. Nix admins never leaving their offices probably explains why they have such a poor customer facing reputation

Last edited by Simonta; 22nd Aug 2010 at 20:26.
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Old 22nd Aug 2010, 20:28
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I don't think it exists in XP, but this does.
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